


Introduction to Endings

by lllewyn



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Slow Burn, just about growing up really, they're kinda dumb but im kinda dumb too so it checks out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24876733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lllewyn/pseuds/lllewyn
Summary: “Like a bucket list,” is the first thing that leaves Troy's mouth, his resentment momentarily forgotten as Abed pulls the notebook back into his lap, nodding. He leans closer to Abed, peering over his shoulder at the scraggly letters printed on the page.“Yeah, I guess like a bucket list,” Abed says, turning so that he’s closer to Troy and they can pour over the notebook together.Abed gets takes a job in LA and helps Troy cope with being left behind
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	Introduction to Endings

When the words first leave Abed’s mouth, Troy thinks it’s another joke he doesn’t understand.  _ I’m moving to LA. Some companies reached out after my documentary about Greendale.  _ To be fair, Abed never really grasped the use of sarcasm, and Troy could never tell when he was being sarcastic, so this could very well be one of those times where it flew over both their heads. However, judging by Annie’s sharp gasp, this was not one of those times. 

“Abed! How could you not tell us until now?” Annie manages before the room explodes. Britta is hugging Abed, Annie’s trying to get her question answered, and Shirley is smiling sweetly across the table. But Troy? Troy feels like there’s a rock lodged somewhere between his ribs as he catches Jeff’s knowing look across the table. 

“Why didn’t you tell me first?” he blurts out without thinking about it. Suddenly, everyone’s eyes are on him. Troy  _ knows  _ he should be happy, but he can’t bring himself to feel any other way than his life getting jumbled, like the way his mom told him he would feel if he swam right after he ate when he was a kid. He feels Abed's unblinking eyes on him, but he can’t bring himself to meet them. 

“A big reveal would be more fitting for the sitcom genre,” Abed starts, explaining like it’s the most logical thing he’s ever said, and maybe it was. “I figured that the group finding different ways to cope with me leaving would introduce substantial B and maybe C plots for at least an episode.” 

Troy doesn’t know where to look, but now everyone’s eyes are on him, expecting him to reply. He doesn’t know what to give them. It’s impossible to process this information in the record time that everyone else had. Everything is too hot and too close, so he stands up, feeling the chicken fingers he had eaten for lunch stirring uncomfortably in his stomach. 

“I’m gonna...go,” he said, voice catching at the end like it always does when he’s about to cry. He speed walks out of the study room, brushing past Jeff’s hand trying to grab him. It feels dramatic, like the way the prom queen would run out of the gym after being booed off stage. He can’t bring himself to care; so what if he was emotional? His best friend just announced that he would be leaving him. The cold stings a little as he bursts through the door, startling some kids smoking on the stairs. He walks past them, blaming his forgotten coat and the dry Colorado winds for the tears that have  _ somehow _ made it to his cheeks.

He feels a bit stupid to be wandering around campus while all of his stuff remains back in the studyroom. Eventually, he knows he’s going to make the walk shame back and face the group again, but right now sitting curled up on this bench seems like an easier task to complete. Staring up into the embossed face of Luis Guzman, Troy allows himself to feel.  _ Of course it made sense that Abed was going to leave Greendale eventually,  _ he thinks,  _ nobody can stay forever.  _ He vaguely recalls Leonard calling the school a “Hotel California”, which makes sense—everyone checks out of hotels  _ and _ schools,  _ right?  _

Troy wouldn’t say he’s angry, or even disappointed. He just feels… stranded. Sort of like the feeling he gets when Abed mentions his “side quests”, like when he delivered some pregnant girl's baby without Troy even  _ noticing _ . To him, that proved that as much as Abed meant to Troy, Troy could never be anything more than another B-plot to him. Troy was just a side character who, as of right now, was definitely hallucinating Abed standing a few feet away holding his coat and backpack, his head framed by Luis Guzman’s bust. 

“You’re probably cold,” Abed says, holding out Troy’s jacket. “Your return to the study group would have been out of character given your stubborn nature, so I thought I would bring it to you.”

Troy wordlessly takes the jacket from maybe-but-probably-not-a-hallucination-Abed’s hand and slips it on, pulling it over his hands and hugging himself. He hates not knowing what to say, but he hates it even more knowing that he’s probably making Abed very uncomfortable with his lack of a response. He’s upset, so he can’t just apologize, because, well—friends don’t lie—but he also doesn’t want Abed to think that he’s mad at him. In the time it’s taken Troy to run the possibilities of confrontation over in his head, Abed has taken the seat next to him and somehow conjured up a thick notebook without him noticing. He really wants to peak inside, but he doesn’t even know where to start asking. 

“So I’ve been thinking about you,” Abed starts in his matter-of-fact way. Troy feels his heart speed up. “I know how much you hate endings and I wanted to keep this a surprise, which I see now was not a very good idea-”

“Hindsight is 20/20,” Troy says before he can stop himself. He doesn’t quite know what it means, but Jeff said it once and it made sense in the situation. Also, it just filled his silence. Abed’s staring at him now, looking away from the journal in his hands.  _ Maybe that was a little too much. _

“I just wanted to make this...thing for you. We don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, but I thought that it might help you cope with me leaving. Doing all the things that have developed into long standing stereotypes as ‘us’, or what that has become.”

Abed passes Troy the notebook. On first page is a list, written in Abed’s unique pencilled handwriting: 

  1. Another dinner we can’t afford at the restaurant where we dined and dashed 
  2. Break into the AC School (mostly because I (Abed) want to see if it looks as creepy as I think it does) 
  3. Troy and Abed in the Morning
  4. The final hunt for Annie’s Boobs
  5. The Dreamatorium



“Like a bucket list,” is the first thing that leaves Troy's mouth, his resentment momentarily forgotten as Abed pulls the notebook back into his lap, nodding. He leans closer to Abed, peering over his shoulder at the scraggly letters printed on the page. 

“Yeah, I guess like a bucket list,” Abed says, turning so that he’s closer to Troy and they can pour over the notebook together. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Whew! I cannot wait to share the rest of this pic with all of you! Massive thank you to Opal and Mia for editing this chapter, you guys rule


End file.
